A/N: Well, well. Back with the next chapter for this story. I've changed the plotline for this a few times, so the summary's changed, and so has the title. I'm finally happy with the plot so far xD
But enough with my talking - enjoy!
CHAPTER 2:
The single window of the motel room allowed a strip of sunlight to shed through between the gap of the curtains. The warm line of light shone directly onto Flippy's face as he deeply slept on the couch. Feeling the warmth of the sun eventually caused the bear to stir in his sleep to wake up to the blinding light. Squinting his eyes until they adjusted, Flippy looked around the room in a haze, trying his best to recollect the previous night's events.
He froze in confusion and shot up from his lying position and glanced across the room; there lay Flaky on his bed, still asleep. Ridden with a strange hope, the pale bear's eyes darted around - he expected everything to be in a state that was the same as what he recalled...but nothing matched.
There were no empty beer bottles, no carelessly tossed clothes all over the floor, heck Flaky wasn't even sprawled on top of him. Which had brought Flippy to face reality, no matter how much he didn't want to, 'It...was a dream...?' he shamefully pondered to himself, a deep blush tinting his cheeks.
He could've easily punched himself right then and there for falling asleep with dirty thoughts about a stranger, and would've if it weren't for her sudden rouse of stretches and yawns. As she rose from her sleep, Flippy sat back in embarrassment and rubbed his hand against the back of his neck.
"Oh...you're awake..." Flaky said, noticing the the bear was already wide awake. The porcupine smiled shyly, "...Good morning, Flippy." Flippy sheepishly smiled in return, "Good morning...did you sleep well?"
Flaky nodded and sat upright before standing to fully stretch, "I did, thank you. Did you? You were making a lot of funny noises in your sleep, almost as if you were crying or...moaning?"
Yet another blush filled his cheeks, leaving Flippy with no choice but to look down, "Oh, th-that? I was probably just having a nightmare, I uh, I get them a lot..." Blatantly lying to prevent making a fool of himself, Flippy withheld the fact that she was truthfully on his mind for the entire night; not so innocently either.
The porcupine couldn't help but notice Flippy's obvious blush, and worriedly wondered if she'd caused it. So as he wasn't looking, Flaky glanced down at herself and tugged the top of her dress over her cleavage. Likely due to sleeping in her dress, it was rather ruffled, revealing more than it should. Flaky inwardly cursed; it was obvious now why her boyfriend hated that dress.
Flippy looked over at the clock on his wall. It was almost 8 in the morning, but despite wanting to sleep in a little longer he figured it was better driving Flaky home first. He idly studied her from where he sat as she got up to gather any belongings. It bugged him to feel so intrigued by the red porcupine, but Flippy's thoughts at the moment were still shrouded with discomfort, no thanks to his peculiarly lustful dream about the girl. Like he's done with every other change in his regular swing of emotions, Flippy pushed aside these thoughts to get up and ready to drive Flaky home.
They both exited the motel, right after Lumpy had swarmed Flaky with his jolly goodbyes from the reception. Flaky had meekly waved back and forced a smile through her wall of shyness.
Flippy loaded her suitcase into the boot of his truck and then joined Flaky in the front. A rather nasty realisation sprung to mind just before he was about to ask Flaky where she was heading. But he did his best to swallow back his strong concerns, and then asked directions.
"So where do you live?" Flaky lifted her eyes from her fiddling fingers to glance at him, "There's a small town just past the beach, I'll give you the rest of the directions as soon as we get there." Flippy simply nodded, despite the lack of conversations biting at his nerves, and revved up his truck before driving off.
Just as he expected, their journey was silent and filled with an awkward tension that even Flaky didn't understand. As Flippy drove into the town, Flaky began to point out any significant turns and directions to guide him to her home. Being back into Hapetry town after so long made Flippy's stomach turn. He was hit by his aweful memories as hard as a brick, and would do just about anything to forget about them...
A year after returning home from his life on the battlefield, Flippy's state of mind was delving deeper and deeper into what he feared too much to come to grips with. He hired a personal therapist, as he wanted to keep his gradually-forming disorder a secret from friends, and his girlfriend especially. He was prescribed on medications by the dozen to prolong what was to come whilst his therapist did what he could to prevent it entirely. But after a month's worth of sessions, everything that Flippy's therapist tried to do had failed, and the only thing that his medication achieved was giving him a temporary depression.
From then on, everything fell apart. Flippy had confessed to Giggles, his girlfriend, about his post-traumatic stress disorder and admitted that it was better if they broke up; although this had killed Flippy to see her so heartbroken, the visions of him attacking her, or even killing her, had brought him to do so.
A month later, Flippy had took back his beliefs that things couldn't get any more worse than his breakup with Giggles when his disorder took things to a nasty extent. The few townsfolk that found out about Flippy's split personality called his new half 'Evil', and the reasons explained themselves. Evil brought all of Flippy's negative emotions and thoughts to the surface, and expressed them with abuse and violence. So because of his counterpart, Flippy had locked himself away from everybody, claiming that the smallest of trigger's could lead to a vicious break-out.
And he was right. All it took was the shattering glass of a bursting bulb, and 'Evil' was free from Flippy's conscience...until his killing spree was over. Since that day Flippy was practically shunned away from town by everyone he knew, leaving him with no choice but to hide away in his shame at the nearest motel.
Seeing as though he was fixated in an odd trance, Flaky lightly poked his arm to snap him out of it. He blinked, noticing that the traffic lights were now green, and that the row of angry drivers in their cars behind him were honking their horns in a fit of impatience.
Minutes later, Flaky pointed out a small, one-story house as they drove towards it. Flippy slowed down and swerved to park by the curb. Already, he was starting to think that this would be the last time he'd see Flaky. They both exited the truck and approached its boot to retrieve Flaky's bag.
Flaky kindly thanked him as she took it from him, "Thank you for this, Flippy," she paused, looking down in thought before continuing, "I guess this is goodbye?" Flippy frowned, "Does it have to be? Or will I see you again?"
With a small smile growing on her lips, she looked up at the bear in front of her, taking in his seriousness. If she didn't know any better, Flaky thought that Flippy was rather eager with his words, "I'll give you my number, and you can call me sometime. Here." Flaky said as she scribbled down the numbers on a scrap of paper from her pocket.
Flippy forced back his annoying blush and took it from her, slipping it into his pocket. After waving her off, he waited for her to enter her home before leaving, and as soon as she waved at him once more from her door, he left in his truck for the motel.
Flaky's stomach was a nauseous pit of knots the moment shut shut herself inside her, well...his house. Before entering, she noticed that his car was nowhere in sight, so just like every other day, he was out again.
Relieved to be alone in her own space, Flaky kicked off her boots by the front door, and dropped her bag along with it before falling down into the comfort of the couch. The silence of his flat was nice, and helped her to relax a little more. Until he got back, of course.
With that in mind, the porcupine decided to make the most of her boyfriend's absence. So the first thing she did was run a hot bubble bath to soothe her aches and stress. As she waited for the tub to fill up close to its rim, Flaky stripped from her clothes, humming a soft tune to herself along the way. She studied her features in the bathroom mirror, scowling as she ran her fingers across the tender bruise and scratch along her cheek. This time, she didn't feel the need to cry about it, and simply continued to look at herself as though it wasn't there. Then there was her small dandruff problem; something she'd struggled to eliminate since she was little, but thankfully everybody she knows overlooks it now, and doesn't feel the need to nit-pick at her problem. With a sigh of content, Flaky pushed aside everything that bothered her for the time being.
She twisted the taps until the water stopped, and carefully dipped her toes into the bathwater to test it. There was a brief sting from the heat, but it was perfectly warm once adjusted to. Happy with the temperature, Flaky pinned her large mass of maroon coloured quills into a bun before slipping slowly into the bath. Waves of goosebumps from the hot water made the dry section of her fur stand on an end, but the steam soon matted it against her skin.
...~x~X~x~...
Several minutes away from the house, a devious duo were quick to scurry out of a bank full of shaken civilians. With a sack of money in each hand, they quickly made their way back to their car, threw the sacks in the back and got in to drive off without looking back. They listened for a few seconds after the ear-shattering alarm was finally set off by one of the employers, then minutes later, police sirens were heard approaching the bank. But the two were already off the street, so it didn't worry them the slightest.
The younger of the two was the first to pull off his black ski mask and laugh, "It never gets old." he said, nudging his brother as he drove. The older twin smirked in agreement, but his eyes never left the road, "You're right, but it's pretty pathetic knowing that the cops in this town don't have what it takes to catch us anymore."
Lifty, the younger twin, shot him a look of disbelief, "Are you kiddin'? The dumber the pigs are, the better chances we have at emptying out every cash machine this town has!"
Although Shifty understood Lifty's point, he still wasn't so sure, "What I mean, Lifty, is the past year has been too easy; break in, take what we can then scoot without the slightest hinderance. Don't you think it gets a little...boring?" Lifty considered his brother's point for a moment, but shrugged, still satisfied with the way their robberies have been. Shifty sighed, and shot him a pitiful glance before averting his eyes onto the road again.
"Remember when we were 8?" Shifty started. Lifty puckered his bottom lip out as he shrugged, "Hmm...kinda." Shifty continued, "That was when we got our first taste of what it was like to steal. Don't you remember how it felt?"
Lifty looked off in deeper thought about what Shifty said, staring at the passing trees and buildings as the car moved. The racoon did remember everything, but hasn't ever thought back on it until he was reminded. He remembered the excitement and fear mixing up and pumping his young heart. But he specifically remembered the huge buzz of fulfilment when they angered the shop keeper after they were caught in the sneaky act. They were, quite obviously, too inexperienced and childish to pull if off without getting caught, but they didn't care; they snatched their favourite candy bar and made a dash for the exit before the shop keeper could even grab them.
Lifty chuckled, somewhat embarrassed by their first try, considering they were now out thieving cash to last them a lifetime, "Yeah...I do remember, and I guess it was a bit of a thrill back then."
Shifty nodded with a smile of agreement, and pulled the car into the drive of their house having finally arrived there, "Then let's just hope things will shake up a little soon, huh? Lifty?" The younger raccoon was a little too busy day-dreaming out of the window to notice Shifty, "Lifty?"
"What? Oh right, what is it?" Lifty replied. Shifty shook his head, forgetting their conversation for now, "It doesn't matter, but I want you to go elswhere for the time being so I can have the house for myself. Okay?"
"That isn't fair! That's my house too!" Lifty stated, gaining nothing but a careless shrug from his brother.
Lifty groaned, giving up on trying to win against his keener twin, "Ugh, fine." Lifty despised his brothers tendency to switch from being kind and easy-going to an utter selfish ass. Thinking again about that, Lifty knew better than to expect his brother to be kind outside of the odd rare occasion.
But, taking a notice to his brother's change in mood, Shifty nudged his arm before he could exit the car, "Hey now, don't you have that girlfriend of yours to see? The one with the old lady hair?" Lifty scoffed at his last question, and slammed the car door behind him before Shifty did, "If you mean Lammy, then yes, but she isn't my girlfriend...yet."
Smiling with certainty, Lifty left Shifty to see Lammy, leaving him with the house to himself. Shifty had his reasons, though, and didn't just send his brother away so he could be completely alone, but with his own girlfriend instead. Shifty approached the front door with the bags of stolen money clutched in one hand, and his keys ready at the other, but the key failed to unlock a door that was already unlocked, to his surprise. His hand twitched with suspision on the door knob as he opened the door. Shifty mentally quizzed to himself; had someone broke into his house? Did he forget to unlock the door this morning? Or maybe...
"Flaky..." A frown turned into a smirk as the thought of the porcupine occured to him, and so he entered quietly, shutting the door behind him as silently as he could manage.
Still lost in relaxation, Flaky was close to dozing off in the bath. It had lost some of its heat by now, but there was enough to keep her warm. Just as Flaky was about to fall under her drowziness, a noise from the other side of the flat startled her. There was a small silence just after the noise, then heavy footsteps were heard coming towards the bathroom. Flaky's heartbeat began to quicken, her stomache knotting up. Secretly, she prayed he wasn't home so soon; Flaky just wanted her own peace for a little longer.
Noticing the steam seeping through the ajar-open door, Shifty approached the bathroom and slowly opened the door to enter. Flaky squeezed her eyes shut, stifled her trembling lip and sunk herself deeper into the bath until only her head was revealed. She couldn't read his blank expression as he stood at the door, so what was to happen next was beyond her.
Shifty put down the lid over the toilet seat and sat himself down, cupping his hands under his chin, "Where were you last night, Flaky?" His question dripped with his insecurities, but this wasn't the first time she'd been questioned in such a way.
Flaky turned away from his gaze and frowned, "Why would you care?" her voice trembled under her nerves, but Shifty didn't notice, "Why would I care? Flaky, you're my girlfriend, all I do is care about you!"
Flaky scoffed, and faced him with a scowl, "You don't care about me at all, Shifty! You care more about draining the next bank you see of its money than you do about me," her eyes stung as she attempted to refrain any tears from spilling, "you're nothing but an aggressive, greedy and self-rightious man, and...I..." she paused, her expression emptying, "I haven't felt anything for you for over a month now..."
Just as the unexpected truth spilled from Flaky's quivering lips, the tears she'd held back broke out along with her sobs. After hearing Flaky state a truth she'd quite clearly kept to herself for all that time, Shifty suddenly felt his chest ache. He didn't know what to do or say at that moment, his girlfriend was pouring her heart out to him, but all he could do was sit and gawk at her as his heartstrings were furiously tugged. The only thing that clogged up his head the most was discovering that Flaky hadn't felt the same way for all that time, and spoke nothing of it.
After several painful minutes of listening to Flaky's crying whilst trying his hardest to think straight again, Shifty got up to leave the bathroom, disappearing without a single word. He would've stayed, but he didn't want Flaky to see him cry; the porcupine has never seen Shifty cry, ever.
It wasn't long before Flaky had drained herself from her tears, so she decided it was time to get out of the bath. The suds had decreased from large piles to a small layer on the lukewarm water. After rinsing away the streams of tears from her face, Flaky pulled out the bath plug, and stepped out to fetch a towel.
Deep down inside, Flaky didn't want to leave the bathroom to face Shifty. If she didn't know her boyfriend any better, Shifty had either stormed out of the house and drove off in a tantrum somewhere, or he was silently lay on their bed, over-thinking to the point where he'd get angry at the smallest of disturbances.
Quickly towel-drying her quills, and then wrapping the towel around her body, Flaky left the bathroom to cautiously creep the house in search for Shifty. Seeing as though their bedroom door was shut, Flaky figured he may be in there, so she held her breath and braced herself before opening the door. Not there. The dandruff-laden porcupine sighed - out of annoyance and sheer hopelessness, 'I bet he's gone and left me now.' Despite her silly accusation being impossible, Flaky thought about it more and realised that she might just be right. After all, Shifty knows how she really feels now.
But seeing his blue car still parked in their drive from the living room window took her by surpise as she tip-toed in, and told her otherwise. Confused, she raised an eyebrow and looked around. Spotting the kitchen door, Flaky's curiosity grew. Thus, she clutched the towel closer to herself before approaching the kitchen. The pit of her stomach bubbled with nervousness and paranoia; there was no denying that the raccoon was going to peeved when Flaky finds him. If she finds him.
And she did find him. Sat sluggishly at the kitchen table with a glass of water in his hands on the the table. He rythematically strummed his fingers against the glass as he gazed upon the wodden surface of the table, still somewhat taken aback by Flaky's confession. The said porcupine then caught his eye as she sheepishly strolled through the door, but after spotting him, she halted and remained where she was. Shifty took one look at her grieving expression and sighed; a sudden wave of guilt was beginning to wash over him.
"Don't just stand there, Flaky, sit with me." He abruptly commanded, gesturing to the chair at the end of the table beside him. Flaky's eyes never left the ground as she meekly did as Shifty told her to and sat down. But Shifty wasn't going to accept her silence at all, "You can at least speak to me, Flaky. Please."
Flaky's ear twitched with a slight interest in the tone of his voice; he sounded genuine, and that was a rarity for Shifty in these situations. Yet still, Flaky seldom found the words to say to him - she was too emotionally and physically exhausted to make a conversation that will likely lead to another eventfull arguement. So she remained silent and gazed down at her fidgeting fingers on her lap. This, of course, only succeeded in pushing the dark green male closer to stressing out about their crumbling relationship. He squeezed his eyes shut and soothed his temples with his fingers to try and ease his growing headache. On the other hand, Flaky continued to worriedly twiddle her fingers, seeking even the slightest bit of calmness despite knowing her boyfriend was forcing back his show of anger. If she hadn't cried in the bath so much, Flaky would have instantly broke down by now.
Shifty took in her anxious and disheartened expression and couldn't ignore the wrenching pain in his chest, "If I change...will you stay with me?"
Speechless at Shifty ever considering saying such a thing, Flaky could only gawk at him. But eventually found the words, "Y-You want to change?"
"If it means you won't leave me, then yes." Shifty replied. His solemn tone made it quite obvious that he was going out of character just so he could speak out for himself. The though of Flaky leaving him; Shifty didn't like that one bit.
Flaky found herself smiling. It was a shame that Shifty was going so far as changing himself, but the way he's been acting lately wasn't something she wanted to stand for anymore, "Do you promise?" she playfully added, her mooding lightening a little. Shifty smirked and reached over to grasp her hands in his, "I promise, Flaky."
A/N: So what do we think guys? Pffff, I love pervy Flippy... xD
I'm trying to stir away from how I'd typically write a romantic fanfiction, and add a little drama and actual hurt into the story. But I'll have to see how things work out!
There will be hints of more shippings in this, such as FlippyxGiggles(slightly), LiftyxLammy, but so far these are the ones to expect, I might just add more ;D But fear not FxF fans! This is most definitely the main couple! Alongise SxF of course :3
If you came across any mistakes, I do apologise. I'm a bit under the weather at the moment and very sluggish :(
But please review, I want to know what you think so far. Critiques are welcome as well as general feedback because, well...everyone needs it here and there.
~Loli x